Flexible chair back construction



Dec. 27, 1938. 1.7 F. HOSEK FLEXIBLE CHAIR BACK CONSTRUCTION Filed June 1, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 lreniz;

Dec. 27, 1938. 1.. F. HOSEK 2,141,532

' FLEXIBLE CHAIR BACK CONSTR UCTION Filed June 1, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ioaz lsZZseZ OT'TIBU uN-i'rso srrs FLEXIBLE CHAIR BACK CONSTRUCTION Louis F. Hosek, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Nachman Spring-Filled Corporation, Chicago, 1111., a corporation of Illinois Application June 1, 1933, Serial No. 82,763

3 Claims. (Cl. 1 55179) The present invention has for its object to protional view of an ordinary chair frame of the type vide improvements in chair back constructions of shown in Fig. 3. the type illustrated and described in Letters Pat- Referring to said drawings and particularly to cut No. 2,020,028 to Darwin Hanauer and in the Fig. 1 thereof, it will be noted that the rear uplatters pending application for patent, Serial No. rights or corner posts I of an ordinary type of an 5 32,316, said improvements having for their parupholstered furniture chair frame is provided tioular object to provide a resilient elongatable with corner rabbets to receive the lower end porand contractible sustaining or supporting memtions 2 of the arms of a U-shaped frame 3, the

her for the upper resilient rail of the chair back middle portion of which is engaged in a groove in structure per se, as hereinafter more particularly 'a rear cross-rail i of the chair frame. The upper 10 described and pointed out. end portions of the said arms 2 of said frame 3 In said Letters Patent to I-Ianauer, the chair project to a very appreciable distance above the back structure comprises a U-shaped frame comupper ends of the uprights I and at their upper posed of relatively heavy resilient wire or thin rod, extremities are connected with opposed end por- 5 the lower end of said frame being rigidly secured tions of the cross-rail 5 which, in the instance to the side rails and rear end of an ordinary chair ilustrated'in Fig. .l, is composed of a helical spring frame, while the upper end portions of the arms made of a relatively heavy gauge resilient wire. of said U-shaped frame are free to flex under the S tab means 5 e Provided for firmly influence of load and are connected with each 111g the p frame 3 0 t ir fra e- It other at their upper extremities bymeans of a helwill also be noted that a second U-shaped frame 20 ical spring which constitutes a more resilient and in v nt s arms 8-, s s ur d at the easily flexible element than said upper end porp r ends of s r o h p ing pp r tion of said arms of Said U Shaped frame. end portions of the arms 2 at points very closely Owing to the high degre of resiliency and flexa j to t upper d f t n r upibility of said helical spring, it has been found, rlehts 26.

particularly in the case of upholstered furniture A spring s b 9 of any suitable type. such wherein a back supporting spring assembly or for example as is illustrated and described in Letcushion structure is carried in large part by the ters Patfint g 2 1 5 u D n f th aid h ed fr m rear wa sin a y secure 0 e sai op rai er en p01 10 0 e S S ap a e and to the side arms 2 of the U-shaped member 3 30 that the said helical spring is apt to sag under the 1 Th 1 d weight of such portion of the spring assembly as 93 3 5 S1 f e g j g P g is carried thereby and that this tendency to sag Zf 2 Li 2 6 2 2; d roear i fi gg 2Z3 3 5; ggg gg zggggf ggg agg spring assembly being thus disposed practically in is Occupied the plane common to the frames 3 and l. The 35 To ove come this difiiculty and objection is the upper Sprmgs Included Wlthm the spring sembly 9 are of appreciable length, and therefore, ob ect of the present invention, su1table embod1- naturally tend to Sag at their forward end p012 inents W are tuustmted m the accompany" tions particularly under the influence of stresses 40 mg drawings wherein to which they are subjected.

Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of a chair frame equip- The Spring assembly is generally equipped with ped with a flexible back supporting structure a cushion pad, a part of the padding material including means applied thereto in accordance f which rests upon the mp Wall of the Spring with the present invention and wherein a spring assembly and the remainder of which rests upon assvembly is shown as mounted upon Said Struc' the front and side walls of the same and is 45 rtureusually secured to said walls by tufting or in Fig. 2is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing another any other suitable manner The Weight of the embodiment of the invention capable of substitucushion pad th r f r is carried mainly by the $1011 the Structure Of forward end portions of the upholstery springs 3 is a perspective View Of the front of a of the assembly and the weight of said cushion 50 chair back structure equipped with means such as pad is also felt, appreciably by th t il 5 of are Shown in 1 2 d wherein pp the back structure which sags appreciably under ing means for the front wall of the spring assemthe infl n e f that weight, bly of the structure is also illustrated. In order to overcome the sagging of the mem- Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical transverse secher 5 and also to sustain the front wall and for- 55 assembly 9, I have provided sustaining means as illustrated in the several figures of the drawings.

In the case of the structure of Fig. 1, I provide a resilient wire upright III which is rigidly secured at its lower end to the middle of the lower rail of the frame I and which, at its upper end, is equipped with a lateral arm or projection II which is inserted into the helical spring 5 and contacts with the upper inner faces of the coils thereof.

Between its ends said wire I0 is equipped with a coil I2 extending parallel with the plane common'to the frames 3 and I and which permits said wire I I! to shorten yieldingly under the inwill be disposed along its middle portion at an appreciably higher elevation than that which it is shown to-occupy in Fig. 1, or, in other words, said rail 5 will be arched under the influence of the pressure of the arm II against the same.

The spring assembly 9 is secured to the frames 3 and I in such a manner as to forcibly shorten the said wire I I3 and bring the rail 5 to the position shown in Fig. 1. Thus the said spring 5 is reinforced yieldingly to enable it to carry the normal stresses to which it is subjected without, however, decreasing its resiliency or elasticity or causing it to interfere in any way'with the normal flexing of'the upper end portion of the arms 2 of the member 3.

Obviously, in'place of employing the type of rail 5 shown in Fig. 1, a top rail I3 composed of a very resilient zig-zag wire may be employed as shown in Fig. 2. The ends of said rail it are preferably secured to the side arms 2 of the frame 3 by means of welding, though other means of effecting such connection may be employed.

A member I4 composed of resilient zig-zag wire. is secured at its upper end portion to the middle portion of the rail I3 and at its lower end is secured by welding, or otherwise, to the middle portion of the frame I. Thus a very resilient top rail I3 is provided which is suitably supported by the sustaining member Id to produce the same result as is produced by the structure hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. 1. a

In the instance of the structure of both Figs. 1

and 2, I preferably provide also a resilient front top rail I5 composed of very resilient 'zig-zag' wire which is secured by stitching, or in any other suitable manner, to the front wall and preferably also the upper row of springs of the spring assembly 9, such securing means being omitted from illustration herein.

in the instance illustrated, the spring assembly contains three top rows of six springs each and two bottom rows of four springs each to provide a narrow portion I8 of said spring assembly which lies disposed between the side rails I9 of the chair frame, the lower edge of the spring assembly being generally disposed at about the level of the rear upper edge of the seat cushion of the chair. The side arms ll of the corner members I6 are secured by stitching, or in any other suitable manner, so that said upper end portions of the spring assembly containing the supported in part by said arms IT.

The advantage of the structure shown in Figs. 3 and 4, taken in connection with the advantages of that of Figs. '1 and 2, lies in the fact that 'the manufacturer generally supplies the customer with frames 3 and 'I with the spring assembly 9 mounted thereon. These structures are purchased by manufacturers of upholstered furniture units, who incorporate the same into the said units and, because of the resiliency of the component elements of the assemblies so sold to the furniture manufacturers, permits compression of said structures into bales or the crowding of a large number of the same into a relatively small crate for freight rate reduction purposes in shipments from the factory to the customer.

I claim as my invention:- 1. A back supporting structure for seating, furniture units comprising a pair of resilient side rail members, a resilient, elongatable cross-rail 'member secured at its endsto the upper end portions of the side rail members, a conventional spring assembly for upholstery secured along rear side edge portions thereof to said side three rows of sixsprings each will be further 7 2. A back supporting structure for seating furniture 'units comprising a pair of resilient side rail members, a resilient, elongatable and contractible cross-rail member secured at its ends to the upper end portions of the side rail members, a conventional spring assembly for upholstery secured along rear side'edge portions thereof to said side rail members and along an .upper rear edge portion thereofto the said crosssilient side rails, a resilient cross-rail member secured at its ends to the upper extremities of said siderails, a flexible web secured along its side and upper edges to said side rails and to said cross rail member and maintained substantially taut thereby, a resilient substantially vertically disposed supporting member for said cross-rail member secured 'at its upper end to the said cross rail member between the ends of the latter, and a support for said vertically disposed member secured to the lower end thereof, said last named support disposed substantially at the lower end of said web. 7

LOUIS F. HOSEK. 

